Ramblings Blog

Being the leader of a Boy Scouts troop sounds like fun, but you should know that it’s also a lot of hard work. By committing to a group of boys, you’re holding yourself responsible for their learning and development in the program. You have to be willing to give your time and energy to invest in and guide them.Be strong and prepare yourself for both adventure and possibly conflict. Jump in with an open mind...[More]

Sometimes it just seems like life gets too hard! We work and work and work and bills don’t get paid, we fall behind on one or more every month and then when it looks like we are just getting out of hot water, the car breaks down and it’s a major repair. No one ever said life would be a bed of roses, and if it is, we have often fallen in with thorns to...[More]

Philmont for ProcrastinatorsReceived wisdom says that getting a crew slot at Philmont Scout Ranch is harder than getting a parking space at the mall on Black Friday. But that's not the case for 2015. As of late last week, there were spaces in the schedule for more than 100 crews on 2015 backpacking treks.Why? Perhaps it's the oversold National Order of the Arrow Conference. Perhaps it's competition from the Summit Bechtel Reserve or other high-adventure...[More]

Making New Year's ReservationsAs you may have noticed, Christmas is just around the corner. But another looming holiday—New Year’s Day—may have more impact on your troop operations.Although a lucky handful of troops have their own meeting places, the vast majority use space provided by their chartered organizations. This could be dedicated space, such as a Scout room in a church basement, or space that the troop must share with other groups.If you share space, now’s...[More]

A New Scouting Position: Nozzle Control OfficerOkay, the BSA hasn't really created a new position, but maybe it should.We live in an information age, when all sorts of information is coming at us like water from a fire hose. Just think about the number of emails, Facebook posts, tweets, and text messages you see in a day. In Scouting alone, we've got Scouting magazine, countless official and unofficial Facebook pages and email lists, council newsletters,...[More]

Why We Do What We DoThis past Saturday, my daughter Lesley got married. It was a lovely wedding on a picture-perfect fall afternoon, and we were thrilled to share the celebration with more than 250 friends and family members from several states and even a couple of foreign countries.So what does my family news have to do with Scouting? A lot. You see, my new son-in-law, Ben Williams, is also one of my Eagle Scouts....[More]

Ten Essentials of ScoutmastershipWhat does it take to be a good Scoutmaster? Many years ago, legendary Scouting author William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt suggested 10 attributes. Here they are:1. A belief in boys that will make you want to invest yourself and your time on their behalf. 2. A zeal focused upon one point—the boy’s happiness through his formative years—”A happy boy is a good boy, a good boy is a good citizen.” 3. An immense faith in...[More]

Put Down That Firewood, and Nobody Will Get HurtHere in Kentucky, we’ve been entertaining an unwelcome visitor in the last few years: the emerald ash borer. This Asian invader has killed more than 25 million ash trees in the eastern United States and will likely kill millions more before it’s done. The only way to prevent infestation is to treat an ash tree with insecticide every two years—at a cost of around $200 per treatment....[More]

What Really Attracts Boys to ScoutingSeveral years ago, I chaired my church’s youth minister search committee, and in that role, I thought a lot about what makes a successful youth program. In the process, I read a book (Choosing Church: What Makes a Difference for Teens by Carol E. Lytch) that really put this issue into perspective. I think the book’s lessons apply as well to Scout troops as they do to church youth groups.According...[More]

Facts and FilmstripsBelieve it or not, YouTube is good for more than cat videos!In planning a session on the patrol method that I’ll be teaching at the Philmont Training Center next week, I came across a gem: a YouTube version of a 1978 BSA filmstrip called “The Patrol Method.” Some Scouting history buff recorded the filmstrip and its cassette-tape narration (beeps and all) and posted it to YouTube several years back.The funny thing is that...[More]